WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, we’re keeping an eye on how the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel is affecting oil prices.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee is pushing back against criticism from fellow conservatives over a piece of the GOP’s megabill that would sell off federal land to help tackle the housing shortage.
Plus, we’ve got the latest reactions around the Senate Finance Committee’s reconciliation text, which would scrap clean energy tax credits.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
OIL PRICE WATCH – LATEST IRAN NEWS SENDS PRICES HIGHER: Oil prices were up today on President Donald Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 summit in Canada and signs of trouble in the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent Crude, the international benchmark, was up 3% to above $75 as of midmorning, and nearly 5% to just under $77 as of the midafternoon.
The happenings: ICYMI, Trump ominously said last night that everyone should evacuate Tehran, as he made his way back to D.C. He’s also convened a meeting with advisers in the Situation Room.
Meanwhile, two giant oil tankers collided and caught fire near the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reports, adding to investor fears about the possibility of trouble in the chokepoint for the global oil trade. The accident, though, was not related to the conflict between Israel and Iran, one of the shipping companies said.
Still, oil prices are relatively restrained: As a reminder, some analysts had seen oil spiking to above $100 a barrel in the case of an Israeli strike on Iran. Oil prices are still below where they were earlier this year.
MIKE LEE DEFENDS LAND SALE PROVISION AGAINST CONSERVATIVES: Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is receiving criticism from conservatives for his provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would require federal land sales to address the housing crisis.
Lee, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, included a provision in the committee’s text for the Republican megabill that would require the Bureau of Land Management and National Forest System to sell certain land for housing.
However, the provision is getting increasing pushback from conservatives opposed to the sale of the nation’s most protected land.
Benji Backer, founder and executive chairman of the American Conservative Coalition, said in a tweet that Lee “is secretly trying to sell 3 MILLION acres of America’s public land for development. … Americans across the political spectrum are **overwhelmingly** against the sale of our beauty.”
Backer called on senators to not allow Lee to move forward with the provision. He linked an interactive map that shows what land would be available for sale, if the provision is passed.
Lee responded to Backer’s criticism, stating that none of the national parks would be eligible for sale under the bill.
“The legislation specifically exempts National Parks, National Monuments, Wilderness Areas, National Recreation Areas, and eleven other categories of federally protected land from sales to build much-needed housing for American families,” Lee said.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, also vocally opposed Lee’s provision. He said that it is possible to open a “limited portion” of federal land but “mass-selling America’s most beautiful places won’t solve” housing or the nation’s finances.
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming would be eligible for land sales. The provision would require BLM and the Forest Service to sell a minimum of 0.5% and a maximum of 0.75% of their estates for housing development.
A similar provision was stripped from the House version of the reconciliation bill before it passed.
SOLAR INDUSTRY PRESSES FOR PRESERVATION OF ENERGY TAX CREDITS: The Solar and Storage Industry (SEIA), the national trade association for solar energy, held a rally today in front of Capitol Hill, where those in the industry called on lawmakers to save solar energy tax credits.
The rally follows a day after the Senate Finance Committee released its legislative text for the GOP megabill, which does away with many clean energy tax credits.
SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said, “The bill will strip the ability of millions of American families to choose the energy savings, energy resilience, and energy freedom that solar and storage provide.”
The committee’s text included a slower phase-out of the Clean Electricity Production Credit and Clean Electricity Investment Credit for electricity generated by wind or solar technologies, as opposed to the House version.
Senate Republicans’ text would phase out credits for solar and wind that start construction next year, and the tax credit would be completely terminated by 2028. For other clean energy projects, it would start the phase-out period for projects that start construction in 2033 and end credits by 2036.
The House version would accelerate the phase-out of credits for all clean energy sources, except for nuclear, and allow companies to obtain credits only if they begin construction within 60 days of the bill’s enactment.
The slower Senate phase-out is going to be a major point of contention with conservatives, who fought hard to roll back the credits as part of the House bill. Republican Rep. Chip Roy tweeted that he would not vote for the Senate version of the bill.
CHEVRON MOVES INTO DOMESTIC LITHIUM SECTOR: Chevron announced it has acquired two leases, spanning 125,000 net acres, in northwest Texas and Southwest Arkansas containing high lithium content.
Lithium is a key mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Chevron said it would use direct lithium extraction to extract lithium from brines produced from the subsurface. The company said the extraction method would allow for a more efficient production and less of an environmental impact.
“This acquisition represents a strategic investment to support energy manufacturing and expand U.S.-based critical mineral supplies,” said Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies.
“Establishing domestic and resilient lithium supply chains is essential not only to maintaining U.S. energy leadership but also to meeting the growing demand from customers. This opportunity builds on many of Chevron’s strengths including subsurface resource development and value chain integration,” Gustavson added.
Other oil giants have made moves to enter the lithium sector. Exxon Mobil in 2023 acquired more than 120,000 acres in southern Arkansas, which has significant lithium resources.
REPORT FROM GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION INTO SPAIN BLACKOUTS: A Spanish government investigation into the massive blackouts in the Iberian Peninsula in April has placed blame on both the grid operator and electricity companies.
Sara Aagesen, Spain’s minister for ecological transition, said the cause of the blackout was a surge in voltage on the grid, which caused the disconnection of a number of plants, the Financial Times reports.
She specifically blamed the grid operator for “bad planning” in failing to replace baseload power that went offline the day before the disaster.
She said, though, that cybercrime was not to blame.
U.S. TO OPPOSE UNITED NATIONS GREEN JET FUEL RECOMMENDATIONS: The U.S. is expected to oppose the United Nations aviation agency council recommendations for developing green jet fuel.
According to Reuters, two sources familiar with the matter said the recommendations unfairly favor Brazilian corn farmers over U.S. producers. In March, the U.S. objected to the council’s Sustainable Aviation Fuels criteria because they would help Brazil, which does multicropping or farming two or more crops at a time.
Brazil ethanol producers warned that the U.S. disagreement could hinder the development of SAF. Major airlines are aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 by using SAFs.
CARBON CAPTURE AT INDUSTRIAL SCALE IN NORWAY: Norway has launched the world’s first industrial-scale carbon capture and storage operation, the Financial Times reports.
Subsidized by the oil-rich Norwegian government, the operation dubbed the Longship project involves taking carbon captured from a cement plant in southern Norway to be injected into reservoirs beneath the North Sea. The first shipment went out this month and will be stored by August.
Officials hope that the operation will eventually make money on its own from carbon credits.
For now, the project is set to store 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide under the sea, versus 2.5 billion produced every year by the cement industry.
RUNDOWN
Bloomberg How Big Batteries Could Prevent Summer Power Blackouts
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